1) Meshell Ndegeocello, “No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin” / For me, James Baldwin is the American writer. And Meshell Ndegeocello is a force of nature, a national musical treasure. Still, I held my expectations in check upon hearing Ndegeocello was making an entire record in dialogue with Baldwin’s prose and legacy.
Thankfully I’m here to report sometimes the thing you expect to be great is so great. “No More Water” is a kaleidoscopic musical document that sweeps up jazz, soul, pop, poetry and performance art as it relates not only to Baldwin, but decades of Black excellence. This is a masterwork from an artist who already owned several.
2) Foxing, “Greyhound” / I just want to be swallowed up in the atmospherics of the St. Louis band’s new single. If this one truly represents Foxing’s forthcoming album, I’m ready for the greater baptism.
3) Navy Blue, “Memoirs in Armour” / I just love what Sage Elsesser is up to as Navy Blue. The rapper isn’t underrated exactly, but I don’t think we’ve collectively reckoned with just how cool and compelling this music is; his newest is another gem.
4) Henry Wise, “Holy City” / Wise’s novel is an oft-dark, sometimes devastating slice of Virginia gothic, a whodunit most interested in the debts of forgiveness, and why we return to or stay hidden from a place. Wise never keeps readers from the harshness of his characters’ realities, which are stomach-churning, but offsets these revelations with rhapsodic passages about what matters most.
5) Sarah Freligh, “Late August” for Ghost Parachute / Brief yet dizzying, this Freligh piece recasts the dog days of summer as something to escape and something inescapable. Every bit of this prose is felt inside the bones.
Think of snow and a bone-white moon in December. Old mutt lying spineless on the kitchen linoleum in front of the icebox where Grandpop kept his bottle of vodka. White lightning, he called it.